El Tunco: the rock, the name and the coast

A rock that looked like a pig

Tunco is a Salvadoran word for pig, and the beach takes its name from a large rock, partly underwater, that once resembled one. The official tourism site says "once", and so do we: water level, viewpoint and light change the profile, and erosion has had decades to work on it. What is stable is the relationship – a beach with a low, connected formation lying across the water in front of it – and that is what the print keeps.

The same source gives the only dated history we would repeat: in the 1970s and 1980s El Tunco was a sleepy seaside town, before it became the destination it is now.

Turtles and a weather station

Two public projects have made the beach a reference point on this coast. In November 2019 the environment ministry MARN chose El Tunco to launch its Marine Turtle Route – 25 hatcheries on 25 beaches, where four of the world's seven sea-turtle species nest along roughly 37 kilometres of coast; the ministry has banned the taking and sale of turtle eggs since February 2009. And in May 2021 MARN installed a weather station at Playa El Tunco, feeding a coastal forecast with wave height, period and direction, wind and sea temperature. The forecast exists because the conditions change; this print does not record one day's water.

Do you know the beach?

If your family is from Tamanique, or you have dated photographs of the rock from earlier decades, email us. We'd like to see how the profile has changed, and we'll agree how to credit you before publishing anything.

Our El Tunco print

Our El Tunco print frames yellow sand and pale turquoise shallows between dark rock walls, with the low charcoal formation and its rounded rise against the horizon and a cream cloud across the sky.